Christine slowly opened her eyes, and found herself lying in a place she didn’t recognize. “Ugh... Where am I...?” she rubbed her temples to ease the pain, and tried to remember what led her to this unknown place that spelled danger from every corner. She glanced around warily as she lay still, in case some monsters were lurking around her. It wouldn’t be pretty if they realized she was alive – just in case they’d thought that they had finished her off.
It took her some time before it finally struck her that she was in Glast Heim.
How in Odin’s name did I get here...?
After ascertaining that there weren’t any signs of the undead nearby, she slowly sat up and glanced sideways, trying to look for the exit. To her surprise, the little girl from her previous dream was laying there next to her, face down and unconscious.
Impossible. Christine pinched herself on her forearm, but she didn’t feel any pain. It became apparent to her that she was in a dream again.
She quickly rushed to the little girl’s side, and turned her around. Much to her relief, the little girl’s chest was heaving up and down – she was alive.
“Hey, can you hear me? Wake up! It’s dangerous here!” Christine exclaimed as quietly as possible while she shook the girl. She would’ve carried her if she could, but there was only so much that a 10-year-old like her could do, and carrying the little girl to safety in such a dangerous place as Glast Heim without getting attacked would be near impossible.
Soon, the little girl opened her eyes groggily, and then they suddenly flew wide open as she started to scream.
“Wait! Quiet! I won’t hurt you! I swear!” Christine said fervently, as she hurriedly tried to cover the girl’s mouth with her hands. It won’t do the both of them any good if she alerted the monsters. They were too strong for Christine to handle – after all, she’s only a mere Swordsman.
However, it wasn’t Christine who scared the girl. An enormous shadow loomed from behind, covering even the already scarce light source. Christine gulped and slowly turned around, praying hard that it wasn’t what she thought it was.
But her prayers weren’t answered. Or maybe she prayed a little too late to change the course of events. Christine found herself staring Dark Lord right in his face, and she found herself holding her breath – the stench of rotten flesh was too overwhelming. She mustered her courage and stood up, stretching out her hands sideways, as though forming a barrier between Dark Lord and the girl. As a warrior of the Kingdom of Rune-Midgard, she had the obligation to protect normal citizens from these monsters who have taken over whichever place they could.
“Don’t you get close to her!” she hissed angrily at Dark Lord as she turned to the girl and said, “Get up! Run somewhere and hide yourself until the coast is clear!”
The girl didn’t respond to Christine. Neither did Dark Lord. Christine was baffled, so she waved her hand in front of Dark Lord’s eyes. He didn’t give as much as a single flinch. She finally realized why the little girl never listened to her, or why the High Priestess didn’t respond to her questions. She was invisible to everyone in this dream world of hers. Which means this time, she could only stand there and look on as this little girl perishes under the hands of Dark Lord.
“Girl... you are the child of the two foolish warriors... aren’t you?” he pondered thoughtfully as he held her chin up to observe her facial features. The girl let out a little whimper at the coldness of his hand, but remained rooted at the spot, showing no signs of fear at the entity in front of her, whom killed her parents in front of her very own eyes.
“Hmm... interesting... Shall I give you a slow, agonizing death so that you can meet up with your parents in the underworld...?” he mused as his hand slid downwards to her neck, and tightened his grip around it – which made the little girl gag and gasp for air, as she clawed furiously at his hand in a futile attempt to make him stop.
“NO!” Christine jerked forward to try and stop him, but she suddenly found herself back in her room, sitting upright on her bed and panting heavily.
“Ugh! Not now!” She exclaimed, frustrated at the untimely return to reality. She tried hard to fall asleep again, in hopes that she could continue where she had left off and find out what happened to the little girl, but failed to do so.
In the end, she gave up. After grudgingly dragging herself out of bed, she prepared herself to go on the solo hunting mission that Shurank arranged as part of her training.
* * * * *
Christine yawned widely as she tried to decipher the map of the Kingdom of Rune-Midgard in her hands. The sweltering heat of Sograt Desert didn’t help her at all, as she could hardly focus on the direction that she was supposed to go, thanks but no thanks to the lack of sleep she had the previous night. She’d still remember the day that Shurank started her off on these solo missions, a month or so ago...
“Christine, you’ve made excellent progress in these past three months. You have been able to master all the basic skills that are required by a Swordsman and more, even close to perfecting them. That is really good.” Shurank told her.
“Really?!” she beamed.
“Yes. And to tell you the truth, other trainers would only go as far as polishing either the endurance or the agility of their disciples. But as you’ve learned, I decided to go a little further on that, training you in both aspects – which you’ve really done very satisfactorily in. Just to give you a bit of good news – unlike other Swordsman or Knights, you can use both the sword and the spear. However, I can only train you in the art of the sword; you’d have to wait till you finally become a Knight in order to learn the art of the spear.” He creased his eyebrows. Christine just grinned.
“I will now begin to teach you the real skills that a Swordsman should have – Bash, Magnum Break, Provoke, and Endure; not forgetting both the art of the one-handed sword and two-handed sword. Are you ready?”
“Yes sir! As ready as ever!” Christine was getting sick of training her basic skills, but now that she could finally learn the Swordsman’s skills, she was super enthusiastic.
“But before that, I would also like to tell you that I’ll be spending less time with you. As you know, a warrior of the Kingdom of Rune-Midgard should learn how to survive on their own, although fighting in a group is also important, especially when dealing with much stronger monsters. So every week, you’d have to go on solo missions for four days – I will tell you which things to collect,” he paused to determine whether Christine caught all of the things he said, and continued, “and you’ll have to look for the monsters yourself. There will not be anyone to help you out this time, so you’ll have to retreat when you sustain too much damage. Don’t push it so far – I don’t want you dying out there as there are no guarantees that there would be an Acolyte training in the same area that you are in. And try to polish the Swordsman’s skills that I’m about to teach you while you hunt. Understand?”
Christine nodded fervently. Finally some real action.
* * * * *
Snapping back to reality, Christine checked the map again. She grinned happily when she looked around one final time to determine her actual position. “Welcome to Poring Island!” she enthused.
The newest mission that Shurank gave her this week was to collect 1000 each of Jellopy, Sticky Mucus, and Garlets. Easy peasy, she thought. Porings, Poporings, and Marins pose almost no threat to her, although she didn’t really want to kill these cute things. But orders are orders.
She unsheathed her Two-Handed Sword, and started looking for prey. Suddenly, she heard someone shout “ARGH!”, and from the sound of it, the person was just nearby. Christine started running, looking everywhere for the source of the voice. True enough, she saw a Thief lying behind a huge rock, unconscious. And he was about to be flattened like a pancake by a Mastering.
Without hesitation, Christine ran forward and hacked the Mastering with her sword. To her relief, the Mastering and its minions now focused on her. She mustered all her strength into both her hands, and executed the skill Bash. The Mastering died at once due to the great amount of damage dealt to it, and its minions also exploded into pieces. It seemed that the Mastering was weakened by this now-unconscious Thief.
After picking up the loot from the floor, Christine sheathed her sword once again, and rushed to the Thief’s side.
“Hey! Hey! Are you okay?! Can you hear me?!” she shouted at him while shaking his body, but there was no response. She looked around to try and spot an Acolyte, but who was she kidding? Hardly any Acolyte would train in a place like this, unless they want to become a Monk in the future. She focused on the Thief again, and realized that he was bleeding profusely. Not to mention that she doesn’t have any herbs that she could use to stop the bleeding. There was only one way to save him now – carry him home and get someone to attend to him.
“Oh man... I sure hope you aren’t heavy.” She muttered, as she carried him on her back. Unwillingly, she took out a Wing of Butterfly from her backpack. Sure, it was the fastest mode of travel to return to town, but she disliked it the most, next to using Wing of Fly.
“Here we go then...” she said as she took a deep breath, and crushed the Wing in her hands. Suddenly, she jolted forward, as if pulled by an invisible and insanely strong force towards the direction of Prontera. The view flitted so fast in front of her eyes that she had to close them shut, otherwise she would get motion sickness as she had experienced before. Not a pleasant memory.
Several minutes later, she found herself standing at the West gate of Prontera city. Without further ado, she sprinted towards the direction of her house that was several steps away, being vigilant not to drop the injured Thief that she was carrying.
“MOM! HELP!” Christine screamed as she ran through the door. Helen Fletcher saw the person on her back, and immediately sent her falcon to the Prontera Sanctuary to ask for help.
* * * * *
“Ugh... OW!” the Thief stirred on the bed and accidentally aggravated the injury he sustained on his left shoulder when he tried to prop himself up.
“If I were you, I’d stay put on the bed.” growled Christine, who was seated on the floor. She was rather agitated that she had to put off her hunting mission, and it doesn’t help a single bit that she didn’t have enough sleep the previous night. What’s more, he was sleeping on her bed.
“Where... is this place...? What am I doing here...?”
“My house, duh. Just in case you forgot, you got your ass kicked by a Mastering. I just happened to walk by and saved you.
“You?!” he winced as he turned in Christine’s direction. “Aren’t you a little too pint-sized to be taking that thing on?”
"Excuse me? Is that the way you should be talking to someone who saved your ass? What kind of Thief are you anyway? Can’t you even dodge the attacks of something that moves so sluggishly?” she sneered. He was really getting on her nerves.
“Whatever. I have no intentions to thank a Swordsman.” He spat as he slowly got up, being extra careful not to hurt himself further. He turned scarlet and regretted it the moment he pulled the sheets off him.
“Wh... where are my clothes you perverted twerp?!”
“Hey don’t look at me! I wasn’t the one who took off your clothes – it was the Acolyte who attended to you. They were torn up and bloodied during your fight, so we threw them away. If you’re looking for clothes, they’re at the end of the bed.” Christine replied nonchalantly, not even throwing a glance at his direction. Or rather, more like she couldn’t bring herself to.
The Thief grabbed the change of clothes, and held the sheets tightly around him. He suddenly ran towards the window, and jumped out of it, much to Christine’s surprise.
“Hey!” she got up from her spot on the floor and yelled after him, “Those are my sheets, you ungrateful, thieving bastard!”
When she got to the window, the injured boy was nowhere to be seen.
“ARGH! How the hell did he disappear so fast with those injuries?!!”
